Thousands streamed through the doors of the European Parliament and other EU institutions in Brussels yesterday, a month before European elections, but most seemed happier collecting balloons than naming their MEPs.
The reason why the parliament, as well as European Commission and Council of Ministers headquarters, was open to the public was that May 9 was Europe Day - though the crowds seemed blissfully unaware of what that is.
"It is very difficult to get people interested in European issues," Belgian Euro MP Bart Staes acknowledged during a public forum in the hemisphere where the EU parliament holds its plenary sessions in Brussels.
"One of the reasons is that they are interested in their own problems," he said. "People say that Europe is too complicated."
Staes, a member of the European Free Alliance, a coalition of nationalist and regionalist parties, urged politicians and media to "shift their focus a little" so that "public opinion would follow".
Large posters around the interconnected parliament buildings declaring that the upcoming elections would take place on June 4-7 throughout the 27-nation EU, helped a sizeable minority of people to identify, roughly, the dates of balloting, according to an unscientific straw poll.
To identify their current MEP, beavering away on their behalf for the last five years, proved much more difficult.
Jan, a primary school teacher from the Netherlands, seemed well clued up, explaining that under the Dutch system there were no regional constituencies, but that voters could choose from national lists.
But he failed to name any current Dutch MEP.
Sarah Walker, a British IT worker in her forties, gave a flat "no" when asked if she knew the name of her MEP but had recently read a book about the workings of the European Union.
Unfortunately, that was because she saw a general "lack of engagement" with the European public and so decided to get more clued up.
"I think that in general there seems to be a lack of accountability, no critical media and no effective opposition," she said.
"There seems to be a disengagement with the general public," and the European parliament "looks like it's in its own world."